Beverage container covers of the above general type are known in the prior art. Many of these prior art container covers have been molded of a rubber or plastic material and of a shape and size to fit a particular shape and size of beverage container. For example, the Swasko U.S. Pat. No. 2,685,319 discloses a baby bottle protector of sponge rubber material and the Ryan U.S. Pat. No. 2,706,571 discloses a similar device constructed of somewhat harder rubber material. The container enclosures of these patents are bulky and costly to ship, and they are not easy and convenient to store by a user when not being used. Also, these container enclosures have very little stretchability and are made to accomodate only one particular type of container.
It has also been proposed that covers for beverage containers be formed of expanded polyurethane foam material. Such a cover is disclosed in Studen U.S. Pat. No. 3,473,682. However, this cover is also bulky and has limited stretchability so that it will accomodate only a limited number of different types of beverage containers.
Several types of knit covers for glasses, bottles and the like are shown in Hinchliff U.S. Pat. No. 2,035,384. The covers disclosed in this patent may be of a rib or plain knit construction and an elastic yarn may be inlaid in courses of the fabric for causing the cover to grip the receptacle encompassed thereby. The covers or jackets of the Hinchliff patent are in the form of a seamless tubular knit sleeve which may include decorative coursewise or walewise extending designs but the knit sleeve is otherwise substantially smooth on its outer surface so that the container may have a tendency to slip from the hand of the user.